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I am not sure what it is about spring, but every time it rolls around I find myself once again thinking about green risottos. Given the asparagus binge that I have been on the last few weeks and asparagus risotto was going to make an appearance sooner or later and this weekend it happened. I stuck with a pretty basic risotto recipe and added the asparagus in a few different ways. First off, I replace some of the chicken stock with the water that I cooked the asparagus in to make sure that I did not loose any of those nutrients. Asparagus has a wonderful juicy texture that I did not want to miss out on so I had to include some bite sized pieces and finally, I wanted to add a bit of green to the risotto itself so I pureed half of the asparagus in a food processor before mixing it in. Risotto works equally well as a side dish or as a main if you add a bit of protein and with all of the asparagus and egg combinations that I have been doing lately the first thing that came to mind was topping the asparagus risotto off with poached egg.

The juicy asparagus worked really well in the creamy and cheesy risotto with the flavour of the asparagus pairing nicely with the flavour of the parmigiano reggiano. Of course the egg yolk running all over everything only made it better! Another great way to enjoy some fresh asparagus in a light spring meal!

Asparagus Risotto with a Poached Egg

Servings: 4

ingredients

1 pound asparagus (trimmed, cleaned, cut into 1 inch pieces)

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion (diced)

1 clove garlic (chopped)

1 cup arborio rice (or other medium or short grained rice)

1/2 cup white wine

2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth, or the water that you cooked the asparagus in, warm)

1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano (grated)

1 tablespoon butter

salt & pepper to taste

1 splash lemon juice

4 eggs

directions

Cook the asparagus in boiling water until it turns dark green, about 1-2 minutes, remove it from the heat, give it a cold water bath o stop the cooking process and set it aside. (I pureed half of the asparagus to give the risotto a nice green colour.)

Melt the butter in large sauce pan.

Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the rice and stir to coat with the butter.

Add the wine, deglaze the pan and stir while simmering until it is gone.

Add 1/2 cup of the stock at a time and stir while simmering until it is gone. Continue until the rice is cooked al dente.

Mix in the parmigiano reggiano and butter and stir until melted.

Remove from heat and mix in the lemon and the asparagus.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and reduce the heat to medium.

Swirl the water in the pot.

Crack an egg into a bowl and pour the egg from the bowl into the water. Repeat for the remaining eggs.

Let the eggs cook until the whites are set but the yolks are not, about 2-3 minutes and fish them out.

20
comments:

George
said...

Most of your recipes are a slight variant of the last. Doesn't that go against your bio "I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years"? What's tomorrow, an asparagus grilled cheese with a poached egg?

And queue in Rosa's Yummy Yums who will have nothing of interest to say except "Looks delicious! Cheers, Visit My Website!"

Actually, George, they are usually a slight variation of recipes involving that particular ingredient of the week or two weeks. He usually seems to pick ingredients based on what is in season.

Yes, a sandwich will always just be a sandwich, and a pasta dish will always just be a pasta dish, etc etc, but putting in different sets of ingredients still makes them different meals. As opposed to eating a strictly grilled cheese sandwich or strictly spaghetti every week.

George,sweetie,There are two billion other cooking blogs if you look around..Why are you on this one if you think it's boring?I,for one,love the slight variations offered..there's something for everyone..And if this is not your kind of thing,then just click your way to another blog,babe!Have a nice day!

I think it would be good if you didn't post any recipes for a while so I could make all the ones I have in my "recipes to make" folder and catch up before you posted another one. (Obviously this isn't going to happen. All I'm saying is that I always want to cook stuff you post and I can't keep up. It's a good thing, really.)

It was sort of unclear to me how exactly we were supposed to cook the asparagus (I searched a few of your recipes, and now assume that you boil water and stick the asparagus in for about two minutes until they turn dark green), but I think it would be helpful if you include that kind of thing.

I (love and) read this blog all the time, and I have found this to be somewhat of an issue.

I typed up another comment, but google decided to eat it in its lust for me to switch accounts.

What it basically said was, how do you want us to cook the asparagus exactly? I looked back through several recipes until I figured out we are probably supposed to boil water, reduce heat, put them in for two minutes or until they turn dark green. But should we cut them up first? Obviously we should clean it...

Over the year(s?) I've been reading, I've noticed this problem. I know it is probably onerous for you to have to type up those kinds of things, but they are very helpful!!

Ariel Farrar: Yes, just throw the asparagus into some boiling water and cook until they turn dark green,nor more than a minute or two. To keep the dark green colour you can throw them in cold water to stop the cooking process after you pull them off the heat. You can cut the asparagus before or after cooking.

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About Me

I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.